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Though we all might know this, but reiterating once Dr. Devi Shetty, Narayana Hrudayalaya (Heart Specialist) Bangalore
A chat with Dr.Devi Shetty, Narayana Hrudayalaya (Heart Specialist) Bangalore was arranged by WIPRO for its employees. The transcript of the chat is given below.

Useful for everyone.

Qn: What are the thumb rules for a layman to take care of his heart?
Ans:
1. Diet – Less of carbohydrate, more of protein, less oil
2. Exercise – Half an hour’s walk, at least five days a week;
avoid lifts and avoid sitting for a longtime
3. Quit smoking
4. Control weight
5. Control BP – Blood pressure and Sugar

Qn: Is eating non-veg food (fish) good for the heart?
Ans: No

Qn: It’s still a grave shock to hear that some apparently healthy person gets a cardiac arrest. How do we understand it in perspective?

Ans: This is called silent attack; that is why we recommend everyone past the age of 30 to undergo routine health checkups.

Qn: Are heart diseases hereditary?
Ans: Yes

Qn: What are the ways in which the heart is stressed? What practices do you suggest to de-stress?

Ans: Change your attitude towards life. Do not look for perfection in everything in life.

Qn: Is walking better than jogging or is more intensive exercise required to keep a healthy heart?
Ans: Walking is better than jogging, since jogging leads to early fatigue and injury to joints

Qn: You have done so much for the poor and needy. What has inspired you to do so?
Ans: Mother Theresa, who was my patient.

Qn: What is the routine checkup one should go through? Is there any specific test?
Ans: Routine blood test to ensure sugar, cholesterol is ok. Check BP, Treadmill test after an echo.

Qn: What are the first aid steps to be taken on a heart attack?
Ans: Help the person into a sleeping position, place an aspirin tablet under the tongue with a sorbitrate tablet if available, and rush him to a coronary care unit, since the maximum casualty takes place within the first hour.

Qn: How do you differentiate between pain caused by a heart attack and that caused due to gastric trouble?
Ans: Extremely difficult without ECG.

Qn: What is the main cause of a steep increase in heart problems amongst youngsters? I see people of about 30-40 yrs of age having heart attacks and serious heart problems.
Ans: Increased awareness has increased incidents. Also, sedentary lifestyles, smoking, junk food, lack of exercise in a country where people are genetically three times more vulnerable for heart attacks than Europeans and Americans.

Qn: Is it possible for a person to have BP outside the normal range of 120/80 and yet be perfectly healthy?
Ans: Yes.

Qn: Marriages within close relatives can lead to heart problems for the child. Is it true?
Ans : Yes, consanguinity leads to congenital abnormalities and you may NOT have a software engineer as a child

Qn: Many of us have an irregular daily routine and many a times we have to stay late nights in office. Does this affect our heart? What precautions would you recommend?
Ans : When you are young, nature protects you against all these irregularities. However, as you grow older, respect the biological clock.

Qn: Will taking anti-hypertensive drugs cause some other complications (short/long term)?
Ans : Yes, most drugs have some side effects. However, modern anti-hypertensive drugs are extremely safe.

Qn: You mentioned that Indians are three times more vulnerable. What is the reason for this, as Europeans and Americans also eat a lot of junk food?
Ans: Every race is vulnerable to some disease and unfortunately, Indians are vulnerable for the most expensive disease.

Qn: Does consuming bananas help reduce hypertension?
Ans: No.

Qn: Can a person help himself during a heart attack (Because we see a lot of forwarded e-mails on this)?
Ans: Yes. Lie down comfortably and put an aspirin tablet of any description under the tongue and ask someone to take you to the nearest coronary care unit without any delay and do not wait for the ambulance since most of the time, the ambulance does not turn up.

Qn: Do, in any way, low white blood cells and low hemoglobin count lead to heart problems?
Ans: No. But it is ideal to have normal hemoglobin level to increase your exercise capacity.

Qn: Sometimes, due to the hectic schedule we are not able to exercise. So, does walking while doing daily chores at home or climbing the stairs in the house, work as a substitute for exercise?
Ans : Certainly. Avoid sitting continuously for more than half an hour and even the act of getting out of the chair and going to another chair and sitting helps a lot.

Qn: Is there a relation between heart problems and blood sugar?
Ans: Yes. A strong relationship since diabetics are more vulnerable to heart attacks than non-diabetics.

Qn: What are the things one needs to take care of after a heart operation?
Ans : Diet, exercise, drugs on time , Control cholesterol, BP, weight.

Qn: Are people working on night shifts more vulnerable to heart disease when compared to day shift workers?
Ans : No.

Qn: What are the modern anti-hypertensive drugs?
Ans: There are hundreds of drugs and your doctor will chose the right combination for your problem, but my suggestion is to avoid the drugs and go for natural ways of controlling blood pressure by walk, diet to reduce weight and changing attitudes towards lifestyles.

Qn: Does dispirin or similar headache pills increase the risk of heart attacks?
Ans : No.

Qn: Why is the rate of heart attacks more in men than in women?
Ans: Nature protects women till the age of 45. (Present Global census show that the Percentage of heart disease in women has increased than in men )

Qn: How can one keep the heart in a good condition? Ans: Eat a healthy diet, avoid junk food, exercise everyday, do not smoke and, go for health checkups if you are past the age of 30 ( once in six months recommended) ….

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Is this Chrono diet a fad or is there something to it? I saw this piece last evening on 20/20. Although the diet sounds a lot like the Atkins diet, the difference is that you can eat anything .. at the right time. According to this new diet our bodies releases certain enzymes at different times of the day so if we align our food choices accordingly we can end up losing weight while apparently eating more. Check this out

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Have you ever stopped and asked yourself why we are told we have to eat three meals a day – morning, noon and night? I have never thought about it until I read this article. Our herd instinct pushes us to follow what we are told. It has always been so so it must be true. These are the memes we propagate. According to this article, there is no biological reason to eat three meals a day. Maybe we ought to eat only when we are hungry. Our bodies are our guide, they tell us when to eat and when we are full. But what if we are not eating enough and foods on the shelves begin to spoil? There goes the economy. See the link? There is always an economic link to whatever we do and maybe it’s time we begin questing things a little more. It is why we are endowed with a questioning mind capable of reflection and thought.

Check out the article?

(exercpt)

The number of meals eaten per day, along with the standard hour and fare for each, “are cultural patterns no different from how close you stand when talking to people or what you do with your body as you speak. Human beings are comfortable with patterns because they’re predictable. We’ve become comfortable with the idea of three meals. On the other hand, our schedules and our desires are subverting that idea more and more every day,” Freedman says.

For most of his

The number of meals eaten per day, along with the standard hour and fare for each, “are cultural patterns no different from how close you stand when talking to people or what you do with your body as you speak. Human beings are comfortable with patterns because they’re predictable. We’ve become comfortable with the idea of three meals. On the other hand, our schedules and our desires are subverting that idea more and more every day,” Freedman says.

For most of history, meals were very variable. A medieval northern European peasant “would start his morning with ale or bread or both, the

The number of meals eaten per day, along with the standard hour and fare for each, “are cultural patterns no different from how close you stand when talking to people or what you do with your body as you speak. Human beings are comfortable with patterns because they’re predictable. We’ve become comfortable with the idea of three meals. On the other hand, our schedules and our desires are subverting that idea more and more every day,” Freedman says.

Forost of history, meals were very variable. A medieval northern European peasant “would start his morning with ale or bread or both, then bring some sort of food out into the fields and have a large meal sometime in the afternoon,” Freedman says. “He might have what he called ‘dinner’ at 2 in the afternoon or 6 in the evening, or later” — depending on his work, the season and other factors.

n bring some sort of food out into the fields and have a large meal sometime in the afternoon,” Freedman says. “He might have what he called ‘dinner’ at 2 in the afternoon or 6 in the evening, or later” — depending on his work, the season and other factors.

tory, meals were very variable. A medieval northern European peasant “would start his morning with ale or bread or both, then bring some sort of food out into the fields and have a large meal sometime in the afternoon,” Freedman says. “He might have what he called ‘dinner’ at 2 in the afternoon or 6 in the evening, or later” — depending on his work, the season and other factors.

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Thanksgiving just past for some (US) Canadian celebrated their Thanksgiving earlier and before that was Halloween – so we have been treating ourselves more than usual. It is easy to get carried away and forget that it is not so much what you eat but how much. Remembered there is always the balance. Fat is the difference between how much you take in and how much you expend. Anything that is left over parks in the fat zone. Christmas is coming and that is another time we will start another eating frenzy. It’s important you keep portion sizes on the radar screen. Here are some tips by professionals in the field:

–Measure out proper portions for one week to learn what the serving size looks like.

–Dish out meals and snacks in single serve containers before storing them in the pantry, fridge or freezer.

– Spend a little extra on pre-measured foods if that technique helps you eat less; it won’t cost more in the end because you’d have finished the box faster the old way.

– At restaurants, when the mega-plate arrives, immediately cut it in half and ask the waiter to bring a second plate, and put it aside, or better yet have the waiter put it in a doggie bag at the start of the meal, so you’re not tempted by it.

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esearchers at Weslyan University are finding that boys and girls are equally conscious about their weight and are trying to lose weight by eating less, purging and exercising vigorously to become thin and remain thin.

While eating less, purging and exercising to stay slim are still largely the preoccupations of teenage girls, teenage boys are increasingly following suit, a sweeping new U.S. study has found.Researchers at Middleton University in Conn. discovered over a 5 year study of adolescent boys and girls found that between 1995 and 2005, 54 per cent of girls in their study reported they dieted, while 10 per cent said they used diet products, eight per cent admitted to purging, 67 per cent exercised, and 43 per cent exercised vigorously to lose weight.The researchalso found thatCaucasian followed by Hispanic girls were the most likely to purge and use diet products to get thin. Black girls had a more flexible view of their bodies and seemedo make whatever body type they have work for them.Caucasian boys were least likely to use diet drugs while Hispanic males were the most likely to be preoccupied with their weight.“Considering that males have negative attitudes toward treatment-seeking and are less likely than females to seek treatment, efforts should be made to increase awareness of eating disorder symptomatology in male adolescents, and future prevention efforts should target male as well as female adolescents,” the authors say.The researchers studied data from 1995 to 2005 gleaned by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via a biennial survey of high-school students in grades nine to 12. The data were self-reported, with students categorizing themselves as “white,” “black” or “Hispanic” in questionnaires.

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Many people are leery about going total vegetarian thinking that they may not be able to keep up with the required amount of protein or that the protein from vegetable is not as superior to that of meat. However, recent research shows that this fear may be unwarranted and that there are many benefits to people who follow a vegetarian eating plan. For one thing they tend to eat fewer calories and less fat than non-vegetarians. They also tend to have lower body weights relative to their heights than non-vegetarians. Choosing a vegetarian eating plan with a low fat content may be helpful for weight loss. But vegetarians—like non-vegetarians—can make food choices that contribute to weight gain, like eating large amounts of high-fat, high-calorie foods or foods with little or no nutritional value.

Vegetarian diets should be as carefully planned as non-vegetarian diets to make sure they are balanced. In our diets, animal products provide good sources of iron, calcium, vitamin D, vitamin B12, zinc, and protein. Be sure to include the following vegetarian foods to get all the nutrients you need: